Naked Activists Descend on Boehner’s Office

Naked protesters demanded a meeting with Speaker John A. Boehner at his personal office Tuesday to discuss potential cuts to AIDS funding.

The Ohio Republican rarely, if ever, uses his office in the Longworth Building and instead spends most of his time in his Capitol hideaway. Naked or not, the protesters had a slim chance of catching a glimpse of the speaker. Or he of them.
At any rate, the group of seven AIDS activists gave Boehner’s staffers quite a show when they stripped down to the buff, linked arms and chanted phrases against impending cuts to AIDS funding that would take place under the sequester.

Three of the seven protesters — who were with the activist groups ACT UP and Queerocracy — were arrested by Capitol Police and charged with lewd and indecent acts, Capitol Police Public Information Officer Shennell Antrobus said. All three of those arrested were female.

“The naked truth is that if President Obama and Congressional leaders like Speaker Boehner allow these budget cuts to lifesaving programs, global health programs will lose $689 million, while domestic AIDS programs will lose $538 million,” Eustacia Smith, a member of ACT UP New York, said in a release.

The indecent incident lasted all of a few minutes, as Capitol Police officers swooped in quickly and repeatedly threatened to arrest the protesters if they did not put their clothes on and clear out. The protesters obliged, put their clothes on and exited Boehner’s office.

The three females who were arrested were placed into handcuffs as they stood fully clothed in the hallway speaking to reporters, TPM reported.

The male protesters apparently made a break for it.

Twitter was immediately ablaze with snark.

“RUMOR: Some of the naked people protesting in Speaker Boehner’s office should be using the hashtag #smallbiz,” tweeted our pals at FamousDC.